Stage 13 – the day I walked a thousand miles.
Start: 6:10, 6 ºC, pretty cold
End: 11:00
Distance: 21/294.4 Km
Stayed at: Albergue Municipal de Hornillos (no reservations)
OST: Questa è la mia Casa, Jovanotti
La Meseta Begins.
La Meseta gifted me a more introspective Camino experience. Many of my learnings were born here, in the middle of The Way.
In hindsight, this second third of the Camino de Santiago was my favourite part.
(meanwhile, getting out of Burgos took some work…)
As a the saying goes, the first part (SJPDP – Burgos) tests your body, but La Meseta… La Meseta tests your mind.
With hours of walking spent by yourself, often under the sun, without coming across any village… La Meseta hits you very differently. For me, La Meseta is the quintessential Camino experience. The Path, the Journey, Il Sentiero, it’s all there in front of you – you just have to put one foot in front of the other and walk it.
No tapas, no cocktails, no distractions – Burgos was a thousands kilometers away.
Talking about distractions: as I always say, the Camino is already a challenging endeavour by itself – no need to stress yourself over finding room at an Albergue Municipal. The municipal albergues don’t take reservations – that’s why my stages were planned around what I could find on booking.com.
This stage was the lonely exception, out of the whole 5 weeks of walking.
For Hornillos, 1) I could not reserve anything and 2) I could not juggle the next stages well enough to maintain a 20-25 Km average distance.
So, for the first and only time – I raced to the albergue. After 10 days of painkillers, this was proof I was finally recovering – physically, and mentally.
Despite arriving at 11:00… somebody was outside the albergue’s closed door, already. Some pensioner, some old man… like me in 5-10 years maybe?
The albergue was small, and nice enough. 30 beds maybe?
What to do in Hornillos? Well… not much, really. This small town is a corridor along The Way.
I made friends, though. A senior couple from Oregon, which I met again and again throughout the Camino (“you have a big heart!” – OK I guess?) and Skylar, a young American student. We covered all three categories of pilgrims:
- youngsters who just completed their studies
- brand new pensioners, who often planned the Camino for decades
- last but not least, those lost into a mid-life crisis.
We managed to make time pass. Having truly nothing better to do, I joined Skylar and others for that afternoon’s bendicion del peregrino.
Going back to Mass was interesting – the last time I was near a priest must have been some friend’s wedding.
The priest asked each of us to sing something short – with dozens of countries of origin, it was quite interesting.
For the first time in my life, I sang in public. I had nothing to lose, and I would never see most of those people again, anyway.
I picked what is the facto my favourite song, “Come la pioggia e la neve”, which I learned from the Taize’ community, back when I was still involved in the local Catholic community. Church exited my life, but some experiences stayed close to my heart. And this song in particular:
In the evening, we all went to the local “ethnic restaurant”: an African restaurant, entirely run by one guy: cashier, waiter, cook, all in one.
It could have been worse.
On this day I met, once again, Adri, the Hungarian physiotherapist friend who had looked after my ankle. Some peregrinos will come and go throughout The Way: some will become memorable in less than 5 minutes. Some others will be good to have a familiar face here and there. At this point, I had a few dozens of “camino friends”, with no guarantee if I would ever see them again.
Sure, you could take their phone number, but… it just doesn’t work. The Camino was not made for Walkie-talkies.
Next stage: Stage 14: Hornillos del Camino – Castrojeriz
Camino for Closers 